Haku's Visit
by MiaMeadows
Summary: Haku escapes from Yubaba and visits his old friend Chihiro, but will Chihiro's parents approve of a dragon as a boyfriend?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Spirited Away or the characters that follow. But I always felt this movie needed a sequel, so here it is.**

It had been a few years since Chihiro had seen Haku and, though she spent her free time scrutinising the skies for a flash of white, she had almost given up hope. Almost.

Haku had, of course, been trying desperately to free himself from the confines of Yubaba's rage and avarice. And, as it so happened, he had managed to do just that. It had required several games of backgammon and a clever card trick but he had done it.

Once he felt the sweet air of freedom he headed straight for the human world, which is a lot easier than it sounds if you can transform into a dragon.

Chihiro was in the middle of her breakfast muesli when there was a knock at the door. Her father answered still in his dressing gown with a cup of coffee in his hand.

There was a young man at the door.

"Chihiro," said her father walking back into the kitchen, "there's a boy here to see you." The disapproval in his voice was not well disguised at all. Chihiro dropped her spoon and stood up. She panicked. Of course it might not be him, but if it was did she really want him to see her like this? Still in her pyjamas? Teeth and hair unbrushed? Face without makeup? Well, there was nothing for it, she would have to answer the door the way she was. Besides, it probably wasn't him.

When she reached the door she froze. It was Haku, but he was older, taller. He threw his arms around her instantly.

"Chihiro I've missed you so much!" he said, into her hair.

"I didn't think you would come!" she said, into his shoulder.

Then there was a lot of crying and carrying on (mostly from Haku)

During this touching reunion Chihiro's parents were getting more and more confused and nervous. Who was this boy? This boy who certainly looked older than their fifteen year old daughter.

"Chihiro, sweetie, aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?" said her mother, finally, when she could bare it no longer.

"Oh, sorry, mum, dad, this is Haku," said Chihiro, taking his hand and leading him to the kitchen table.

"Nice to see you again," said Haku, bowing in his most gentlemanlike manner, "you are looking well."

"Again?" asked Chihiro's mother, "I'm sorry, have we met before?"

"Oh, well I just feel like I know you," he said, "Chihiro has told me so much about you."

"That's funny because she hasn't told us a thing about you," said her father, scowling over his empty coffee cup.

"Oh sure I have dad," said Chihiro, trying to salvage the situation, "Haku, from my old school before we moved here."

"I don't recall you mentioning…"

"Anyway look, I'm going to show Haku around the house now ok? Oh, and he can stay for dinner right? Great thanks."

She dragged him away and out the backdoor leaving a pair of startled faces behind her.

"Sorry about that," she said, letting go of his hand and walking away from him.

"You didn't tell them about me?" he said to her back.

"Well, what was I supposed to say, that they were turned into pigs and I got a job in a spirit bathhouse and made friends with a dragon? For starters there is no way they would have believed me."

He didn't say anything instead he knelt to inspect the flower beds.

"I'm sorry, Haku, I didn't mean to upset you," she said, kneeling beside him, "I should have at least told them about you."

"It's not that Chihiro, it's just that, well I haven't stopped thinking about you at all since you left and I thought it would be the same for you."

"It has been the same for me, I mean, I thought about you all the time. I just, I didn't tell anyone because, well, they would think I was crazy."

"So, you didn't forget me?"

"Of course I didn't forget you," she said, nudging him with her shoulder, "I could never forget you. So, do you want to see the rest of the house?"

"Sure," he said, taking her hand, "lead the way."

When they went back into the kitchen her parents were sitting at the table whispering frantically to each other.

Chihiro and Haku walked past without noticing their worried glances. They ascended the stairs and entered a room with a C on the door.

"This is my room," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Haku remained in the door frame.

"It's nice," he said, suddenly awkward.

"So, umm, what do you want to do?" asked Chihiro.

"I don't know, it's been so long since I was in the human world, what do you normally do on a Sunday?"

"Well, actually I am supposed to be playing volleyball today, but I understand if you don't want to…"

"Sounds great."

"Ok, well, I just need to get changed and then Dad will drop us off at the oval."

"Ok, I'll, umm, I'll meet you in the kitchen then," he said, shutting the door and heading back downstairs.

Chihiro changed quicker than she ever had in her entire life, terrified of the conversation Haku was currently having with her parents.

When she arrived in the kitchen they were interrogating him with more panache than a pair of private investigators.

"So how did you meet our daughter again?"

"At school."

"But you're not in the same grade?"

"We were both on the volleyball team."

_He's good at thinking on his feet,_ thought Chihiro, jumping down the stairs five at a time.

"And where do you live?"

"I umm…"

"Mum, Dad, kindly stop cross examining my friend, we have a game to get to."

"We weren't cross-examining him honey, we were just being friendly," said her mother.

"Well, we have to get going now, right Dad?" said Chihiro.

"Ok guys, get in the car then," said her father.

So with Haku stuck in the back and Chihiro trying to make conversation in the front they left for volleyball.

Chihiro's father dropped them off with a promise to be back in exactly one hour.

When Chihiro started playing Haku was fairly sure he had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life.


	2. Chapter 2

Chihiro was the best on the team, at least, Haku thought so. She was as graceful as a lynx but she had the strength of a rhinoceros and she took dives like a penguin.

When Chihiro's team won Haku gave her a shy hug of congratulations and muttered a few laudatory words. Even with a red face and her hair slicked back with sweat she was still impossibly exquisite. But it trouble Haku she was no longer the little girl he had met at the bath house, of course, he knew that she wouldn't stay the same forever, but it seemed she had lost a part of herself. Chihiro had grown up without him and Haku was hiding a small fear that, somewhere along the way, he may have lost the girl who saved his life with nothing but the power of her love for him. He was also upset to find that Chihiro seemed to have got by just fine without him when all this time the thought of seeing her face again was all that kept him going through the long years.

But Haku didn't know about the lonely nights Chihiro had spent staring at the sky, falling asleep sitting on her desk with her head resting on the window pane straining her eyes with the hope of seeing the swish of his white tail. He didn't know of the times she had cried thinking he would never return, thinking that perhaps it had all been a dream after all and he didn't even exist. He also didn't know that she had visited the park again time and time again but found nothing there at all, no clue that the bathhouse even existed at all.

But they were together and that was something. Well, it was more than something, for Haku, it was everything.

After the game the girls spent a good deal of time running about in and out of the sprinklers. Haku watched Chihiro like an artist watching his model. Her movements were no longer the awkward and disjointed ones of a child; now it was as though everything she did was in slow motion. Unfortunately her father's car pulled up before Haku even had a chance to tell her how beautiful she was.

Fortunately Chihiro was on top of things and had a plan.

"Dad," she said walking up to his window, "do you think you could drop us down by the river and we'll walk home from there?"

He gave her a look which should have accompanied a request to become a drug dealer.

"We'll be back in time for dinner," she said, before he could even utter his first disapproving syllable, "and Haku has never been here before so it would be nice for him to see the river."

"Well, I suppose, as long as you're back well before it gets dark," he said, sensing a trap.

"Of course we will be."

So he eventually acquiesced with a long list of conditions and dropped them off at the water's edge.

"Want to go for a swim?" Chihiro asked giving him a mischievous look.

He thought about refusing but Chihiro had already jumped in fully clothed and at the sight of Chihiro swimming in soaking wet clothes Haku forgot every word he knew so he meekly removed his shirt and joined her.

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked him, standing in the waist deep water.

"What?" said Haku, still having a lot of trouble concentrating on anything except Chihiro's wet netball uniform.

"I mean, now that you're free, are you going to get a job? Go to school?"

"I don't know, I guess I hadn't really thought about anything except seeing you."

"But where are you going to live?"

"I, I don't know."

"Well, if it was up to me you could stay at my house, but I don't think my parents would be too thrilled with the idea."

"Right, well, I, I guess I…"

"Well, we don't have to talk about that now," she said climbing onto the riverbank, "I'm getting out, it's freezing."

Once they were lying in the sun drying themselves Haku felt his insecurities overcoming him again.

"Is something wrong Haku?" Chihiro asked, looking at his confused face.

His answer was a long time coming back, "I just, I don't feel like I know you anymore."

"Well get to know me then, that's why you're here isn't it, you can't have expected me to be the same after all these years."

"No, that's not what I mean, of course I knew you would be different, taller, older, I just, I don't feel like you really missed…"

"Haku, I'm still the same girl, and I still feel the same way about you that I always have."

"And how do you feel about me Chihiro?"

She blushed, "I, I think I love you Haku."

"Only think?"

"Well I don't know, I mean, until a few hours ago I had almost given up hope completely that I would ever see you again but, well, when I thought it might be you at the front door this morning I swear I almost had a heart attack and when I saw you standing there I thought I might be dreaming again."

"Again?"

"I can't count the number of times I dreamt that you came to see me, only to wake and find an empty room."

"But Chihiro, you never came to see me either."

"I tried to, don't you think I tried? But there was nothing there, I had no idea where I could find you."

"But, Yubaba said no one had tried to cross the threshold since you and your parents."

"And you would trust Yubaba over me?"

"No, I just, I really thought you had forgotten me."

"I told you this morning Haku, I never stopped looking for you in the sky, I never stopped wishing that you would come for me."

"I'm sorry."

They sat in silence for a moment and Chihiro started to absentmindedly braid her hair while Haku lay on his back staring at the clouds.

"Haku?" Chihiro asked, her words full of doubt, "Do you love me?"

He sat straight up and looked in her eyes.

"Chihiro, how could you even, of course I love you!"

And with that he leapt at her and finally did what he had been dying to do for years. He kissed her.

Chihiro had never been kissed before and she felt suddenly as though she were flying. After a few perfect moments Haku withdrew and before either of them had a chance to speak he had transformed into a dragon and they really were flying.

And oh the feeling of flying again, Chihiro had forgotten the absolute perfection of gliding through the air on Haku's back. And in just that one moment it was as if no time had passed at all.


	3. Chapter 3

Needless to say they did not make it home in time for dinner; an afternoon between two in love is never quite long enough. And once the rain started to fall there was not much to do but to huddle in the boughs of a tree and kiss. There was a lot of kissing.

When they walked in the door of Chihiro's house both slightly pink faced and dripping wet they were greeted with a reprimand of the highest degree and a cold supper. After changing into dry dressing gowns they sat and ate in silence with Chihiro's father hovering over them and spouting occasional words of contempt.

"So I guess you better be heading home now then Haku?" he said as he whisked the plate from under Haku's fork.

"Well actually Dad, would it be ok if Haku spent the night here?"

"If it's not an inconvenience," added Haku, "I can sleep on the couch."

Chihiro's father looked like he may have swallowed a model train, but luckily her mother chose that moment to come in.

"Well of course he can stay, I wouldn't expect you to go all the way home this late and in weather like this."

Haku bowed, "thank you very much."

Chihiro's father watched her make up the couch from the doorframe and as soon as she had given Haku his pillow he sent her straight up to bed without time for a quick goodnight or anything.

He then turned on Haku with a face of galvanised steel. Haku was sitting on the couch very calmly.

"So, Haku," he said, "what exactly are your intentions with my daughter?"

"I assure you sir that they are completely honourable."

"As you know Chihiro is only fifteen, and you look like you're at least…"

"I'm seventeen sir."

"Exactly! You see, Chihiro is still a child, she's not ready for a…"

"Isn't her birthday in a couple of months?"

"Look, that is hardly the point."

"Sir, I understand your concern, but you can trust that I will never let anything happen to your daughter, you have my word on that."

"But what if I don't want you to happen to my daughter?"

"Well sir, with all due respect, I don't think that is up to you, now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean my teeth."

Haku climbed the stairs to the bathroom and was disappointed to find Chihiro's door shut, he dared not open it for fear of her father's rage so he returned to his little bed on the couch and curled up under his dressing gown blanket.

But Chihiro wasn't asleep, she had waited for her parents to shut their door and had crept out of her bedroom, in her pyjamas, padded down the stairs and timidly entered the living room. Haku looked as though he were asleep and she was suddenly fearful of waking him. He looked beautiful when he slept. His dark hair was swept across his forehead and there was the smallest hint of a smile on his lips.

She tiptoed to his side and knelt at his head, his chest was rising and falling with every breath and she felt an irresistible urge to reach out and touch him. She put her hand out ever so slowly until it was resting on his cheek. Then he woke up and nearly jumped out of his dressing gown.

"God Chihiro, I thought it was your father coming to kill me."

"Sorry Haku, I just wanted to see you."

"That's alright," he said sitting up, "here join me."

She snuggled next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I wish you could stay here with me forever," she said.

"Me too, but your Dad will never let me stay another night."

"Is there nowhere else you can go?"

"I have no friends in your world, no family, no job, no money, where can I go?"

Chihiro knew where he could go, and she feared he did too, but she couldn't seem to bring herself to say it out loud. She didn't need to. They were both thinking the same thing. Haku would have to go back to the spirit world.

"Let's not talk of that now," she said, timidly taking his hand, "we're together now, tonight, let's just focus on that for now."

He looked at her then, really looked at her, and he realised, his fears were all for naught, she was still that same girl he had known, she had the same smile, the same eyes and he knew in that moment that he would never love anyone else as long as he lived.

So they had one night, one perfect night together, before the morning that would separate them again.

Chihiro could not find it in herself to eat breakfast, it was hard enough to tear herself from Haku's side, before her parents awoke, and return to her own bedroom.

Before he left they took another walk into the garden but Chihiro couldn't seem to look Haku in the eye, instead she had to sit on the grass and study the flower beds while he tried to whisper consoling words.

"It won't be forever, Chihiro, I can always come and visit, and who knows, maybe in a couple of years you could come too?"

"I know," she said, "I just, I feel like I only just got you back and now I have to lose you again."

"But you won't lose me, I can come and see you anytime I want, I will come to all your volleyball games, I promise."

"Well, as long as you promise."

He wrapped his arms around her, "come on," he said into her hair, "I better get going before your Dad shoots me."

They walked inside hand in hand despite the disapproving looks from Chihiro's parents.

In just a few minutes Chihiro found herself standing at her front door between her parents and watching Haku walk away.

"I don't want you to see that boy anymore," her father said with a look that suggested he knew Chihiro hadn't spent the night safe in her own bed.

"He's not a boy," she said as she watched his white tail flick through the sky, "he's a dragon."

But her parents had no words of protest, only open mouths.

A week later Chihiro's father dropped her at her volleyball game. She had searched the skies the whole way there for the slightest hint of white, but there was none. It wasn't until the game started that she spotted him sitting in the crowd. He was grinning from ear to ear and waving like a maniac. She was so happy to see his face that she missed a spike, and Chihiro never missed a spike.

The End.


End file.
